Department for Transport: Inquiry into the fire on heavy goods vehicle
shuttle 7539 on 18 November 1996
In this Report, we conclude that the fire on 18 November
1996 was a severe test for the system and its operators,
and we make a large number of recommendations arising
from our findings. (French copy)

UPTUN-home
page
UPTUN is the acronym for Cost-effective, Sustainable and
Innovative Upgrading Methods for Fire Safety in Existing
Tunnels; a European RTD-project funded by the European
Commission in FP5.

Hot-Smoke Testing in Australian tunnels
This is a complete paper by Hugh Allan and Michael
Delichatsios of CSIRO Fire Science & Technology
Laboratory for the Australian Fire Protection Association
Conference in Hobart in November.

Incendie dans les Tunnels de Transport - Fire
Safety in Transport Tunnels
The ITA and its national group in Switzerland,
co-organized on March 23rd and 24th in Lausanne, a
seminar on fire safety in transport tunnels. The
objective of this seminar was to examine Swiss
recommendations on the subject; to put forward possible
comments and to assess to what extent these
recommendations could be used as a basis for
international recommendations.

Tunnel fires research at Heriot Watt University
The effect of longitudinal ventilation on fire size in a
tunnel, Details of pool fire study - Conclusions
If there is a pool fire in a tunnel, any forced
longitudinal ventilation applied will tend to reduce the
severity of the fire unless the fire is very large, in
which case the ventilation will cause the fire to
increase in severity. There is a significant difference
between experimental data and expert opinion. More
experiments are needed to increase our understanding of
fire behaviour in tunnels.

SINTEF: Psychologically correct tunnels
The Highway Authority will lead the way with
'psychologically correct tunnels' Researchers at SINTEF
Civil and Environmental Engineering have been given the
task of evaluating efforts to suppress the feeling of
unpleasantness.

ADAC-Tunneltest 2000
Die Tester nahmen 25 Tunnel auf wichtigen Reiserouten in
Österreich (vier), der Schweiz (fünf), Italien (zwei),
Frankreich (drei), Großbritannien (drei), Spanien
(drei), Belgien (zwei) und Deutschland (drei) unter die
Lupe.
The results from a new equipment test in 16 tunnels were
presented by ADAC on April 26,
2001. The different types of installed safety equipment
have been counted and he final safety rating are based on
a simple mathematical model. There is no explanation why
the test contains no real risk assessment and why the
traffic volume is excluded from the risk model. In this
way the motorway tunnels with two tubes and high traffic
volumes get the highest score. One tube tunnels with low
traffic volumes get low score because less sophisticated
equipment have been installed in these tunnels.
Some tunnel experts say that the ADAC tunnel test is no
real safety test at all. It's only a counting of the fire
extinguishers, fire detecting systems, video cameras,
water pipe lines and other equipment. The producers of
safety equipment will of course be happy for the test
results, but the tunnel user should never feel too safe
in a tunnel with high traffic density even the ADAC score
should be "very good". The drivers
should be informed that a dangerous situation takes only
seconds to develop, and most technical equipment even in
the best equipped tunnels will react too slow to be of
any help in case of a big crash.
All tunnel users should know how to use the safety
equipment that have been installed in tunnels. They
should always use the fire extinguishers and emergency
telephones in case of fires or accidents. In this way the
staff at the control centre can react immediately, close
the tunnel and alarm other drivers in the tunnel by
giving messages over the car radio. Everybody should also
keep in mind that in case a fire gets out of control,
they should escape as soon as possible and never wait for
rescue by the fire brigade or anybody else.ADAC-Tunneltest 2001 -
Die ADAC-Tunneltests